Nintendo PWNs the Controller

Forgive the internet speak title, but that is my reaction to this.

Basically, I couldn't have dreamed for better. I tried really hard I did. But this is the most singly awesome and amazing thing Nintendo has done since the Legend of Zelda. I had thought to myself at somepoint, "If Nintendo allowed you to aim lightgun style at the TV, that would rock and help out some of my neat ideas for a FPS". However, I figured that was fanciful dreaming. Incredibly, it was not.

Honestly, my money's on Nintendo, literally. The college here gave me $700 to buy a train pass that would last me the year. However, I live a five minute walk from the college. The BCA director told me flat out I should just pocket the money. I did, but not until after I bought a Nintendo DS (some other students here had them, which tipped the decision), and cheap too. While I've only played one game in depth (Jump Superstars, basically Super Smash Bros. gone Manga), it's one heck of a game. I'm only planning on buying games here that I couldn't get in America, but I may end up buying an entire RPG just so that I have something to force me to practice Japanese at home (Lunar is looking pretty). Other technology I have bought is a temporary cell phone so that my host family and others in Japan can contact me, and an electronic dictionary for translating Japanese (and even Kanji).

Anyway, as I said my money's on Nintendo. The Xbox 360 will be nice, the PS3's sure to do well, but right now Nintendo is golden. Even if other publishers create terribly crappy games which mangle the new control structure, Nintendo is certain to make games so intuitive you'll swear they took apart the human genome to figure out genetic predispositions of control preference. The only possible failure I can see at this point is if Nintendo releases the Revolution to far after its competitors, or if the Revolution is significantly behind graphically. I don't expect the latter, but the former is a small possibility that could be disasterous. While the Revolution is bound to generate interest, at the very least long time gamers might err on the side of familiarity if they have to wait a long time for the Revolution.

In any case, I think it's safe to say at this point that the Xbox 360 will not be able to adaquately mimic this. Any such copycatting would require an expensive addon to an already expensive system. Gamers can be die hard, but there is a point where the infeasibility of things takes over. Sony could pull something together, but unless they delay their launch date, I doubt anything adaquate could be generated in time for the PS3's debut, and the games that have been in developement for both competing consoles will certainly not be able to adaquately incorperate any such addition even were it incredibly well made.

My hands are already itching to get my hands on the new controller.

Lastly, I programmed the Zelda Intro Theme into my temporary cell phone from sheet music.

Rock on.